by Mike Rhode
The American Library Association hosts a gigantic meeting each year in downtown Washington. My daughter is a fledgling librarian, and met some cartoonists, including Ted Anderson who gave her his card, and then agreed to do our standard interview. (This is how DC actually works if you're not from around here - people knowing people).
What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?
I'm a comics writer! I got my start as one of the writers for the official My Little Pony comics at IDW, then worked on a couple of other licensed books—I was one of the last people to write Adventure Time at BOOM!—before getting to do two creator-owned series at Aftershock, Orphan Age and Moth & Whisper. My first book, The Spy Who Raised Me, came out from Lerner's Graphic Universe in April 2021, the height (depth?) of the pandemic, and my next book, Side Effects, will be out from Aftershock's Seismic Press in October 2022.
How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?
I'm strictly a writer, and I do everything on the computer. I've written dialogue while in line at Chipotle. In terms of craft, I tend to start with the dialogue and get the pacing of the scene first, then go back and add descriptions and scene-setting.
When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?
In the 1980s, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I live today.
Why were you in Washington (i.e. attending ALA) ?
I've been a member of the American Library Association for years now, ever since I got my Master's, but this is the first time I've actually attended a conference—ironically, at the request of my publisher! Side Effects is the first book that Aftershock has done an Advance Reader Copy for, and they wanted to debut it at the conference in the hopes of capturing the librarian market. They knew I could talk professional jargon with other librarians and convince them to give the book a try. It was an amazing conference—we came in with 500 ARCs, and they would've all disappeared on that first day if we hadn't held them back!
How do you balance your careers?
It's been relatively smooth so far. I've been a middle school librarian for the past three years, but it hasn't been a teaching position, just checking books in and out. I haven't had to bring any work home, and sometimes it was even light enough for me to get some writing done during the day. However, this fall, I'll be starting a position at a new school that involves teaching. I'm looking forward to it, but it is going to be a bigger time investment. It helps that I do a lot of my work in my head, and write whenever I get a chance in my off-hours.
What is your training and/or education in cartooning?
Not much formal education—there wasn't much in the way of comics education during my K-12 years, and in college, the classes I could find were mostly about analyzing and deconstructing comics rather than creating them. I definitely had an interest in comics at a young age—I got a copy of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics long before I could fully understand it, and read what interviews with comics creators I could find to figure comics out as an art form.
Who are your influences?
My early comics were classic kids' comics: Tintin, Asterix, Bone, some Carl Barks and Don Rosa. In high school I got into British invasion writers like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, and later into Grant Morrison. But lately, I've been finding that I get the most out of books by a single writer/artist: Mike Mignola, Jason Lutes, or Dylan Horrocks' Hicksville, one of my all-time favorites. I feel that, as a writer, it's very easy for me to neglect the visual aspects of the work, to think of the art as purely illustrative, rather than a vital element of storytelling, so reading a comic by only one creator helps put things in perspective.
What's your new book about?
Hannah is a first-year in college who's experiencing anxiety and depression, so she goes to campus mental health services for help. They start her on therapy and medication, but the meds she takes give her side effects—including superpowers. So in addition to dealing with classes and relationships, she also sometimes shoots lightning bolts out of her fingers or reads her professors' minds. It's a relatively light-hearted book, meant to be an optimistic look at mental health and how we can get better. It's a YA book, appropriate for high-schoolers and up—maybe middle-schoolers, depending on your students.
If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?
I would've started creating and putting out my work earlier. I wasted many years thinking about the comics I'd like to do, rather than actually doing them. The trick to being an artist is making art: you have to be willing to put your work out into the world, regardless of whether you think it's good or not.
What work are you best-known for?
Probably the work that I broke into comics with: IDW's My Little Pony series. That's definitely the work of mine that's had the biggest print run, at least.
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| MLP #21, courtesy GCD |
What work are you most proud of?
Honestly, I'm really proud of some of my MLP issues. Licensed work obviously has its drawbacks, but working with limitations—like using established characters, or having strict page limits—can be a great way to sharpen your craft. I did an issue about professional wrestling in the pony universe, which was a wild story—I got to work with Jay Fosgitt on that one, which was a lot of fun. And I did an issue that was kind of a precursor to Side Effects, where Twilight Sparkle goes into Big Mcintosh's mind in order to see how he stays so calm and level-headed—kind of a fantastic look at mental health.
What would you like to do or work on in the future?
I've got a lot of books for mature readers I'd love to do—not "mature" as in sex and violence, but as in literary, thoughtful fiction. I feel like most comics for adults are either bloody gorefests, surrealist experiments, or memoirs; I don't see a lot that are the equivalent of "literary fiction," for lack of a better term. On the other hand, I've also got some younger-reader books I'd love to do—I've got a superhero book for kids I've been working on for more than a decade. I joke that I'd like to have a book on the shelf for every genre and audience.
What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?
I try to focus on something else. I don't really have a hobby per se; for a while I got into painting 3D-printed objects, but I don't have access to a 3D printer at the moment, so my supply of material is limited. Video games, going to movies, putting together puzzles—anything that activates other parts of my brain is helpful.
What do you think will be the future of your field?
For comics, I think it's rosy: libraries, schools, and booksellers are expanding their collections and expanding access to the medium. Publishers are diversifying and acquiring exciting new talent, and audiences are able to find more and better work than ever. In schools, it's unfortunately grimmer: censorship attacks are increasing at every level, but I think librarians and educators are fighting back and standing up to those who would restrict our reading. As always, there's a question of funding education enough to ensure quality libraries for all students—we have to do a lot with a little, which I think many educators are unfortunately very good at.
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| courtesy GCD |
What comics do you read regularly or recommend? Do you have a local store?
My local store is Source Comics & Games in St. Paul, which is a fantastic store—they do regular events and have a great space for gaming in addition to a really good selection. As for what I'm reading, I pick up a lot of YA OGNs—I want to keep an eye out for stuff my students would like. I just grabbed Galaxy: the Prettiest Star from DC, and Blue Delliquanti's Across a Sea of Starlight. I've been getting into a couple manga series lately, like Witch Hat Atelier and Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and I feel like everybody I know is recommending Spy x Family, so that's next on my list. And I've also been doing a gradual read of the entirety of classic Hellblazer, which was a series I was too young for when it was coming out, but I would've loved it about ten years later.
What's your favorite thing about DC?
Regrettably, I've only been there twice, so I don't have a lot of experience to draw on, but what I'd love to take advantage of next time is the incredible amount of museums and archives. Just being able to walk down the block and see a different collection of curated materials is a wonderful opportunity.
Least favorite?
The heat and humidity. I'm from Minneapolis, I'm not made for this biome!
What monument or museum did you like to visit?
I only had time to visit one museum, but it was an excellent one: the Museum of the American Indian was a fantastic experience. They had fascinating exhibits on native history, media depictions of Native Americans, works by contemporary native artists—I spent hours there. Even the building itself is a wonderful space. Highly recommended.
How about a favorite local restaurant?
I went to a dinner for authors and employees of Lerner Publishing at Busboys & Poets, and that was an incredible experience. That was by far the best meal I had that weekend—I only wish I'd had the chance to check out the book selection as well.
Do you have a website or blog?
I'm working on it! Right now I've got twitter, like everybody else: twitter.com/tedlyanderson
How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?
Honestly, I endured the lack of social contact pretty well. Cartoonists like to joke about how we're already hermits so we barely noticed everything shutting down, but that was genuinely my experience—I tend to curl up and go into Maximum Introvert Mode when given the chance. It helped that I had a book to work on; having a long-term, large-scale project that I could work on while socially distanced was very helpful. As an educator, however, it was devastating: no school was prepared for distance learning, and our students really suffered. I tried to find ways to make myself useful even while the school was closed, but it was rough going. Even after we came back, students had great difficulty re-acclimating to the school environment, and I think that's going to continue for some time, unfortunately.
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